David Cronenberg has directed some fantastic, bizarre and innovative films in his career and none more so than "A History Of Violence". It is so masterfully directed that, although the plot is not entirely unpredictable, you are kept in the edge of your seat a great deal of the time. Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) owns Stall's Diner in a small mid-west town, along with a nice house on the outskirts, where he and his wife Edie (Maria Bello) raise their two kids apparently living a comfy life with very few worries. Tom is a mild mannered man and highly respected within the small town community. His daughter Sarah likes shopping, and his teenage son Jack (Ashton Holmes) amongst other things tries to develop better baseball skills with his friends.
One-day, two ruthless killers draw their guns in a robbery attempt at Small's Diner and the staff feel very threatened at such an incident. Whilst Tom attempts to moderate the threat and protect his small staff, Tom is forced to kill both of them with amazing ability and expertise to the total surprise of the staff and other customers present. His actions were warranted and instinctive, and due to local press publicity, becomes the town hero. This heroic deed gets Tom and his family a great deal of local media coverage including national television, bringing with it a small piece of fame.
Once this local story cools off from the media, Tom returns back to Stall's Diner where it is now the congregation place for all the locals and business is going great guns. One of the new customers is a mystifying character wearing an eye patch and his two sidekicks, who calmly sit at the counter and order three meals and coffees. This man is Carl Fogerty (Ed Harris), and claims to know Tom previously but only under the name Joey Cusack, much to the apparent bewilderment of Tom. Carl then goes onto display a gruesome injury to his eye and claims Joey Cusack was responsible for this a long time ago. Tom senses further altercation and asks the three men to leave the diner. The Director now leads us into a chary past and we now question the mild mannered and local hero's genuine authenticity. Questions are asked, further linking him to Carl Fogerty and his disturbing past back to Philadelphia. Why is he so good at killing people? Could this really be a case of mistaken identity? Is Tom Stall hiding a sinister secret? One thing is for certain, things just don't add up!
These suspicious innuendos start to raise further questions by Tom's family and create further anxiety and tension on all fronts. Edie has come to the point where she does not know who her husband really is! At times the violence is intense and also graphic and yet it leaves you with compulsive viewing.